cek.sinn.ru was the website of the Nizhny Novgorod computer center "CEK" (ZAO "CEK"), known from web archive snapshots of 2000–2003[1][4]. The firm traded in computers and office equipment and held three outlets in Nizhny Novgorod: Osharskaya St., 69, room 213, Universitetsky Lane, 7, and Lomonosova St., 9b; phone numbers in the footer of the home page were listed with the code (8312) — 35-18-51, 33-55-00, 35-67-65[2]. The home page's copyright line in 2000 read "Copyright 1999-2000 Joint Stock Company CEK," with the design credited to "Design: Pavel Lotovich"[1][2]. As the site's description stated in 2000, CEK was "one of the oldest computer firms in Nizhny Novgorod" and operated as a service center for EPSON, STAR, TOSHIBA, CANON, and Minolta[1].

Online store, flea market, and service

The 2001 menu consisted of the sections "Home," "Catalog," "Cart," "Training," "Guestbook," "Repair," "Flea Market," "Search," "About the Firm," "Help"; by the end of 2002 "Catalog" had been replaced with "Shop"[2][3]. The catalog was divided into components, copiers, monitors, storage media, CAD equipment and software, printers, consumables, telephony, and networking equipment[2].

The home page showcase was a set of daily offers priced in dollars: in May 2001 this was a 17-inch CRT monitor by LG ("3-year warranty in Nizhny Novgorod") — old price $280.00, new price $269.00; a 56,000-baud modem for $53.88; and, in the "Online Auction" section, an Asus KN-97 board for $39.00[2]. The "Buy a computer over the Internet" promotion gave a 3% discount: "now it's advantageous to sit at home and order yourself a computer or components"[2]; by December 2002 the online-store discount had grown to 5%[4]. In February 2003 the showcase featured an EPSON Stylus C42 printer for $61.6, while the branch on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya was clearing out Panasonic fax machines at 5,350 rubles[4].

Services appeared quickly: April 19, 2000 — online order placement, June 20 — a guestbook, July 18 — a "computer flea market"[1]. In 2002 the home page carried contacts for online managers Vladimir and Tatyana with their ICQ numbers, and a "Credit" section for installment sales to individuals[3]. Besides trading, the site offered training and repair: on May 15, 2001 the home page announced a reshuffling of phone lines at the Universitetsky branch (33-55-00 and 31-78-93 — main hall and courses, 31-78-31 — the CAD department), and on May 3 it advertised job openings at the salon on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya[2].

Provider, hosting, and web studio

CEK also tried its hand beyond retail. On July 20, 2000 the home page announced: "We have received license 14971 to provide telematic services. In other words, N.Novgorod will soon have another Internet provider"[1]. In April 2001, buyers of an external modem were promised free Internet access, and cards for the provider "Cityline" were offered for sale at any CEK branch[2]. A "Hot Offer" block advertised "the cheapest professional hosting in Nizhny Novgorod" for $3.5 a month, with a free month for anyone who found it cheaper, and a free domain of the form yourname.cek.ru or yourname.nnov.ru[2][3]. Besides the shop, the section list included a web-design studio, Internet connection, hosting, full-color printing, and a consignment shop, and in 2002 also "CAD and GIS"[2][3]. By the end of 2002, CEK was distributing the "Kronos-Inform" software, and on December 30 it became a regional reseller of Convera Technologies[3][4].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the nn.ru directory the site was listed as "the web representation of the computer center 'CEK,' with constantly updated information," and in the reconstructed Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating of the Counter.nn.ru rating its score was 309.81 — a notable figure for a commercial site of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet of the early 2000s. The home page was woven into the local network: in 2000 it carried a "Nizhny Novgorod Computer Association" block and four banners of the NNBN network, and in 2002 — NNBN 120×60 counters and banners[1][3]. On November 27, 2002 the firm asked visitors: "please vote for our site www.cek.ru at http://www.internet.nn.ru/voute.php in the corporate category" — that is, in the voting for the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day[3].

The content was typical for the era: alongside a price list in HTML and ZIP, a price-list mailing, and computer-news feeds sat a "JOKE" block with a "NEW EVERY TIME" button[2][3]. A poll, "Where did you hear about our site?," listed the firm's advertising channels: a newspaper ad, a price list, a "mouse pad," TV advertising, a link from another site[2].

How it closed

The address cek.sinn.ru was an early one for the firm: the 2000 mailboxes were pavel@cek.sinn.ru, shop@cek.sinn.ru, info@cek.sinn.ru[1], but already by 2001 CEK was giving out names in its own cek.ru zone[2], and in the 2002–2003 news items the site calls itself www.cek.ru and gives mail addresses at cek.ru and cek.nnov.ru[3][4]. In February 2003 the home page was still being updated — it reported a shipment of EPSON printers arriving on February 13 and stated that "the informational filling of the product catalog continues"[4]. After that the trail breaks off: the last snapshot of cek.sinn.ru in the web archive is dated June 22, 2003, only seventeen snapshots survive in total, and today the address does not respond.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2000 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)